We talked about the key demographic: women in tech, and how we could design a site that created a visually appealing space for women to read and share content about their industry.
As the lead designer on this project, I began the design process by meeting with the main stakeholders and talking through what they wanted the site to do for the user. I then researched other business sites targeted to women as a baseline for my design. I discovered that women respond well to images, so I began my design process with a photo grid layout in mind.
After creating a design approach, I then met with developers on a daily basis to work out the front-end capabilities. I hand-coded css and worked with developers in its implementation so that the back-end functioned smoothly with the front-end.
Because this site was created in Drupal, one of my main challenges was to create a user profile page that utilized all of the preset back-end capabilities in Drupal in an easy to use and intuitive format.
The two section (upper and lower) navigation was designed with growth in mind. The website began with only a few main sections but was easily expanded to include temporary special sections in the lower nav.
